When we arrived in Lima on January 11, 1986, the Archbishop Juan Landázuri Ricketts entrusted us with the parish La Trinidad, located on the southern outskirts of Lima in the municipalities of Villa Maria del Triunfo and San Juan de Miraflores
The parish was erected with an official decree a few months later, on June 9, 1986. Previously, the Vincentian fathers, who were responsible for the pastoral care of the area, had already begun to build some chapels. In fact, the area was rapidly being populated by people moving to Lima from the mountainous areas of the country looking for a better future (due to the terrorism of Sendero Luminoso). People invaded public lands and used mats for shelter. Slowly each family started to build a small house, first with very poor materials, then with bricks.
There were also some Dominican nuns present in the area who used to teach catechesis and manage a small medical dispensary. Some priests from Lima also came to help.
Our community has taken on the pastoral care by standing alongside the population, gathering people, and creating adequate structures to promote the social and religious development of the mission. Local people welcomed the missionaries with great affection – happy to finally have the opportunity to make a journey of faith, meet to pray together, build fraternal relationships, and live the experience of a Christian community which walks with the guidance of priests and missionaries living with them in the neighborhood.
Currently, the territory of the parish is divided into 4 pastoral areas, each of which has at least one place for liturgical celebrations:
- La Trinidad is the main church (district of Mariano Melgar)
- Sagrado Corazón de Jesús (district of Micaela Bastidas)
- Virgen de Chapi (neighborhood of Villa Jardín)
- Santa Rosa de Lima (neighborhood of Villa Jardín)
- Nuestra Señora de la Solidaridad (neighborhood of Villa Solidaridad)
- Cruz de la Solidaridad (neighborhood of Villa Solidaridad)
- María Misionera (district of the German Democratic Republic)
- Virgen Inmaculada (district of May 20)
- María Misionera (district of the German Democratic Republic)
- Virgen Inmaculada (district of May 20)
The churches
Fr. Antonio Urru tells:
“Without any structure where people could meet, without a chapel which could make the presence of the Church visible, it would have not been easy to start a process of evangelization. We have worked with the people. Some missionaries often attended city assemblies to manage to have land to build a new chapel.
The relationship with the people has been very important since the beginning. We understood that before building structures we had to learn to assume their mentality, to discuss any problems with them. Our western mentality had to inculturate. We had to be very patient; we often couldn’t build quickly what was planned because the people’s time wasn’t ours. Without their involvement and direct participation, every project of ours would have failed.”
In such a difficult and poor social context, one of the first priorities has been to take care of the children and their families.
Family catechesis has allowed us to reunite many families and make them experience their belonging in the Church. Pastoral care with young people has been quite effective: here young people easily “evangelize” each other – something which does not happen in other age groups. Through the preparation for Confirmation it has been possible to approach a good number of young people and experience with them a path of personal and ecclesial growth, taking advantage of their desire for friendship to invite them to join or start a group.
The Christian Community
Because of the vast extension of the mission and the growth in crime that prevents people from moving from one neighborhood to another, especially at night, it was decided to increasingly decentralize the pastoral care activities, promoting more activities at the local level.
The chapels were given more autonomy in their organization and pastoral development. The same is for the pastoral areas, catechesis, social ministry, liturgy, family pastoral care, etc. They all operate autonomously. This approach has encouraged the responsible recruitment of various lay people.
The greatest challenge is always the same: training community leaders, people who have the capacity and the resources, especially in terms of time and availability, to accompany a pastoral area and find catechists who are available and consistent in their experience of faith.
Most of all, people ask to be accompanied on the journey of faith, in the preparation and celebration of the sacraments, in catechesis, in understanding the Word of God. It is very evident that the need for human and spiritual closeness, both in families and in other social groups, especially the youth and children. Many people ask for help in being authentic and consistent in the Christian life. In addition, we have also perceived since the beginning the need to help strengthen social cohesion among people who come from different parts of the country and who, due to terrorism, have yet to relinquish an attitude of distrust and suspicion towards strangers.
